The DBA filing, state by state.
A DBA is the name you trade under when it is not your legal name. Some states register it centrally with the Secretary of State, some leave it to the county, and some want both. Renewal cycles differ, and so does the point at which the filing is expected. Pick your state for the office, the route and the timing. What a DBA never does is form a company.
Four things that change with your state.
Registering a trading name looks identical from state to state until you try to do it. Where it is filed, how long it lasts and what it covers are all local questions.
State desk or county clerk
Some states take fictitious name registrations centrally, through the Secretary of State. Others handle them at county level, where the clerk for the county you operate in holds the register. A few expect both, so filing one and skipping the other leaves the name only half registered.
When you actually need one
The rule is the same everywhere in outline. Trade under a name that is not the legal name on your formation document, or not your own name as a sole proprietor, and that name has to be on a register. When exactly that bites, and how soon the filing has to follow, is set locally.
Renewal cycles differ
A DBA is not permanent. Registrations run for a fixed term and then have to be renewed, and the term is not the same in every state, or in every county inside a state. Let it lapse and you are trading under a name the register no longer shows as yours.
What a DBA does not do
A DBA is a name, not a legal person. It does not create a company, it does not separate personal assets from business ones, and it does not replace formation. Sole proprietors and formed companies both use them, for different reasons, and neither gets liability protection from the filing itself.
One name, fifty-one registers. Start with yours.
Pick your state.
Each state page covers where a fictitious name is registered in that jurisdiction, whether the county has a role, what the renewal cycle looks like, and the point at which a DBA stops being enough and formation is the better answer.
A clean handoff, in four steps.
You choose the name and tell us where you trade. We check it, prepare the registration for the office that governs you, and file it. The renewal goes on a calendar so the name does not quietly expire.
Settle the name
Pick the name you will actually trade under, in the exact spelling you want on signage, invoices and the bank account. The register records the string you give it, not the intention behind it.
Search the register
We check the name against the register that governs you, state or county, so the filing is not returned over a conflict that was visible before you sent it.
File with the right office
Fictitious name registrations go to the Secretary of State in some places and to the county clerk in others. We prepare and submit yours to the office that holds your register, in the form it asks for.
Put it on the calendar
Registrations run out. We record the renewal date when the filing is accepted, so the name stays live and the public record keeps showing it as yours.
The filing is quick. The renewal is the part people forget.
The rest of Secretary of State directory.
Every one of these is built the same way: a national explainer above its state pages. They are the filings that sit closest to this one.
Secretary of State
The Secretary of State, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State annual report
The annual report, state by state
All 51 states → HubArticles of Amendment
Articles of amendment, state by state
All 51 states → HubBusiness license
Business license requirements, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State business search
Secretary of State business search, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State Certificate of Good Standing
Certificate of Good Standing, state by state
All 51 states → HubEntity conversion
Entity conversion, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State dissolution
Secretary of State dissolution, state by state
All 51 states →The full index lives on Secretary of State directory.
The questions people ask before they file.
What is the difference between a DBA and an LLC?
A DBA registers a name. An LLC is a legal entity. Filing a fictitious name tells the public who stands behind a trading name; it does not create a separate legal person, and it puts no wall between your personal assets and the business. If liability is the reason you are here, the DBA is not the filing you want. Plenty of businesses run both: the entity carries the liability, the DBA carries the brand.
Do I file a DBA with the state or the county?
Both routes exist. Some jurisdictions run a central register through the Secretary of State, some leave fictitious names to the county where the business operates, and some expect a filing in both places. That is the single largest difference between the pages in this family, and it is why a national answer is not much use to anyone. Your state page names the office that holds your register.
Can an LLC or corporation file a DBA?
Yes. A formed entity uses a fictitious name whenever it trades under something other than the name on its formation document: a second brand, a shortened version, a line of business with an identity of its own. The entity stays the legal owner and the contracting party. The registration only records that the trading name belongs to it, so anyone searching the register can make the connection.
Does a DBA stop anyone else using the name?
Not the way people expect. A fictitious name registration is a public record tying a trading name to a person or an entity in one jurisdiction. It is not a nationwide right to the name, and it is not a clearance check on anyone else already using it. Businesses that care about a name beyond their own state treat the DBA as the local filing and the wider name question as a separate piece of work.
How long does a DBA last?
Not forever. Registrations run for a set term and then need renewing, and the term is set locally, so a business trading in two places can be on two different clocks. The register does not chase you for it. If it lapses, the public record stops showing the name as yours, and anything that relied on that record falls out of step until you file again.
Can one business have more than one DBA?
Registers treat each trading name as its own filing, so a second brand generally means a second registration, with its own paperwork and its own renewal date. That is how one entity can run several storefronts, product lines or service brands without forming a company for each. The tradeoff is administrative: more names on the register means more dates to keep track of.
Keep going, in order.
Secretary of State directory
Every hub in secretary of state directory, in one place.
Open the index → IndexAll 51 state guides
Every filing a business does, organised by jurisdiction.
Open the index → ServiceCompliance calendar
Every deadline that touches your entity, watched.
Track deadlines → ServiceTalk to a specialist
A person who files these every day, not a call centre.
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